Back when CA WAS the frontier, they made some beautiful, and beautifully functional, guns out here. There used to be a Slotterbeck muzzle loading rifle in the little museum at Mt. Lassen Natl. Park that I drooled over all summer when working up there. About .54 and a bear killer for sure. (I seem to remember that the maker was Joel Slotterbeck, but I haven't seen the rifle since about 1962....)